Collecting dots

I’ve been listening to Amanda Palmer‘s The Art of Asking. I’m about halfway through it, so not able to give a full review yet, though I can say at this point I love it.

The starting point for the book was her TED talk, also called The Art of Asking, where she talked about her experiences as a street performer in Boston and learning how to ask for what she needed. As well as talking about asking – asking for money, asking for support, asking for anything – she talks about the importance of finding and connecting with your fans, and weaves in stories of her history, of the important people in her life, including how she met, fell in love with and eventually married Neil Gaiman. Being a fan of both of them, and remembering their respective blogging during the period of their courtship, it’s really interesting hearing her reflections on that time. It’s also absolutely lovely hearing about how their artistic lives started to affect one another. I heard this quote on my way home tonight and loved it:

We started to blend with one another, the only way we knew how, using art. Collecting and connecting the dots of each others’ lives. All art, no matter what shape it is, has to come from somewhere. We can only connect the dots that we can collect.

Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking, chapter 4 (audio book)

I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the book. And if you haven’t seen the original talk, here it is: